DAMAGE CALCULATION IN FUSION CERAMICS - COMPARING NEUTRONS AND LIGHT-IONS

A method developed earlier for displacement damage calculations in com pound materials is applied to fusion ceramics irradiated by various ne utron sources and light ion accelerators. For protons up to 40 MeV and alpha-particles up to 100 MeV, as well as for several neutron environ ments (EEF, ITER, HFIR, FFTF), sublattice-specific primary recoil spec tra and displacement damage rates have been calculated for alpha-Al2O3 , AlN, BeO, MgO, MgAl2O4 and SiC. Although the primary recoil spectra can vary significantly for different neutron sources and light ions, t he ratios of sublattice-specific damage rates are the same within 5% f or BeO, MgO and SiC in all considered environments. For ceramics conta ining Al, the damage ratio differs up to about 40% between neutron and light ion irradiations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.